SP1 Halo Effect: Freelancer
by Evident Disaster
Summary: I've reviving this fic, and its now completed, at the moment. The story is currently between being continued or finished, read the last and final chapter of this arc and then decide, does this fic get another chance?   The UNSC has won, and the council concedes to peace, the war is over, but peace, has it truly come? That is for the future to tell and for you to decide! CH10...
1. Halo Effect:CH0 prologue

Halo/Mass Effect crossover

Hi i'm ED (Evident Disaster) the one and only guy who knows what not to do, well in my school, this is my first ME/H crossover, i don't know the technical language here so please enlighten me,

the story is relatively simple, it's kind of a mix between ODST but the character it follows is diffrent

there is romance but much later, the focus is solely on the story so far.

Please review

Timeline

2554 January 3rd marks the official end to the Human/Covenant war, the treaty at the New Mombasa memorial is remembered as the end to the war which had devastated humanity for twenty years. This follows with the Spartan memorial site of Spartan II and III, the collapse of the Covenant which had become splintered factions of the Elites and Brutes whom continue to fight for dominance.

Humanity begins reconstruction in the aftermath of the war, a census on all surviving colonies, the approximate survivors of the inner colonies are accounted at 75 billion, the amount of worlds that had survived are calculated at 279, many of these colonies were not discovered or overlooked by the Covenant during the rush to Earth, plans to recolonise glassed worlds are postponed as the UNSC places all resources into rebuilding what remained of the inner colonies rather than risk stretching themselves too far.

Following days later the Office of Naval Intelligence, Section three is disbanded and all classified intelligence confiscated, the members of section three and head were apprehended and tried, Admiral Parangosky is detained for life.

In the defence of Earth and her colonies, remaining SPARTAN III are recalled to help with the separatists in their fight against Covenant loyalists, the project was hushed to the public until ONI ex-agents released intelligence on the creation of Project Spartan, the public reaction was considerably negative, the UNSC reports their claims of what had occurred during the war was justified for humanities sake, future plans were to be optional for anyone willing to undertake a future program.

2559 January 3 Marks the begining of the Independent Sentient Republic, unification between the Unggoy and other Covenant species form into a single force, the efforts brought by Arbiter Vadam.

2561 October 21 the end of the covenant had been complete with the death of the last remaining hierarchs the Covenant loyalists fall apart, the Independant Republic also retrieves hidden information by the on what the Prophets had known. Covenant worships the Forerunners but fight Humans, who have been confirmed as Forerunner descendants by the Oracle. The idea of living Forerunners in the Galaxy (described by the Oracle as Reclaimers) terrified the Covenant leadership. In an attempt to protect their religion the Prophets of Truth, Regret and Mercy concealed the true identity of Humanity to the rest of the Covenant and deemed them as heretics, thus sparking the Human-Covenant War.

The truth behind humanity creates friction but many soon surrender their beliefs and traditions of the journey, most of the Covenant change their beliefs and asks for assistance in the reconstruction of their society, Humanity is soon placed in a position where the Covenant and themselves could live in peace though the thought of humans as the forerunners has the Covenant religious groups restructure.

2565 The release of the first Sangheili smart AI, the engineering feat undertaken by both UNSC and Sangheili scientists with the Huragok improving much of the USNC technology, smart AI have a now known life span of 75 years.

2579 August 16 the formation of an alliance between the Independent Republic and UNSC as reconstruction begins in the outer colonies starting with Reach, the remnants of the loyalist factions are defeated with Jiralhanae Being forced back to their home world of Dosiac, most are now acting as raiders and pirates.

March 21st recovery of ruins at an outer colony in the Novara sector reveals interesting finds of mysterious technologies and maps, the team in charge of recovery soon discover a mysterious object in space.

_Let Heaven Sing _a frigate designated for research on the rely accidently triggers the dormant relay propelling them thousands of light years ahead to another relay, the discovery of these ancient devices catches the attention of both UNSC and Republic scientists, the origins of such devices are unidentified and does not match known Forerunner technology, the UNSC begins moving colonists and forces into the new region of space, the planet Eden Prime is colonised and movement into the region is complete, though colonists are mostly voluntary and significant forces are sent to ensure safety of the colonies, the world's Shanxi and Xiang are soon colonised without concerns, Republic colonists of Sangheili follow in the grab.


	2. Halo Effect:CH1 Hello

It said half charge okay not full it was orginally meant to surprise them... or something.

btw thanks to all of you for the views and hope you enjoy

2580 June 11th a UNSC research fleet is attempting to activate a relay in the New Epsilon Novara sector. Jump completed and successful they are intercepted by an unknown fleet, the records of battle after contact:

/UNSC/CONFIDENTIAL/: RELAY NEW EPSILON NOVARA/

EYES ONLY

AI: SARA 5R4R Smart AI Recording…

(UNSC Military Standard Time 01:17)

Captain Jacob Reyes a man in his early twenties lean and strong built, with a look of confidence and determination and fatigue stood at the command bridge of his Frigate _Autumn Leaves _as they approached the same dark navy coloured object they had encountered in space some months back.

They had activated a relay within the Guliean Cluster, the ship had been slung shot thousands of light years within minutes, Jacob and his people were dumbfounded, once they had managed to return he reported his findings of the mysterious relays.

UNSC and Republic at first had been sceptical of such find until a proper team had been dispatched, though it was the first of many relays the UNSC and Republic decided for a more thorough investigation before trying to activate anymore relays.

It had been until a few months later when another four others in multiple sectors had been uncovered that an agreement was made for regulated jumps into new space, but due to high risks involved the UNSC made sure each jump had a small escort of ships to each new sector of space.

Jacob for his reputation had been commended for his discovery and was asked to scout out any other relays and to report each new sector he discovers, that is how he ended where he was.

He was soon to complete another survey of new space that would be soon open for access; the young man was still running the thoughts of what he would be accomplishing. "The day I ended as captain at this age would be like a dream for any ensign but here I am only in my twenties and the captain of a frigate and the fleet with it."

The UNSC had seen the astounding records of the young captain, Jacob had an impressive collection of commendations against pirates in the sector, even though his tactical superior maneuverers tend to nearly get his crew killed, he proved that he could do nearly impossible manoeuvres.

The fleet record had him for a discharge after his insane method of removing a terrorist threat on the UNSC command ship _Judgement of Truth_ which had an entire board of Admirals who had witnessed the beautiful execution of his plan.

The Admirals were soon placed to have him removed or court martialled, but a twist of luck changed this, the Admirals decided not to waste his talents but instead gave him a choice.

The promotion to captain and continued service to the fleet or an honourable discharge and commendation from the fleet, the commander accepted the continued service to help pay for the damage but the admirals were thankful that and public view wanted him in the fleet because of his talents, the promotion of the hero of Haze was welcomed by all.

The view of space in the background of the relay made him wondered what other opportunities were to come, the galaxy was large but it was just another adventure for him and his crew, the recent events soon died down with brutes being severely forced back to the border and mop up pickets had finally stopped loyalists from entering UNSC space.

His efforts in Epsilon Novara had paid off with more colonies becoming habitable and new trade industries appearing, the only difference was there had been no action no new objectives either than research and activation of relays.

The bridge of his new ship was a buzz of the usual business, scientists scrambling about with calculations around operations officers and techs making sure all systems were functional and Sara buzzing in every so often out of boredom.

A tech officer reported. "Sir we completed final preparations, shall we go ahead sir?"

"You have my authorization, all hands prepare for jump in one minute and brace for deceleration." He finished saying as they ran the length of the relay. The sudden acceleration of the ship from normal sub-light to speeds unreachable in FTL slung them across space until they reached their destination moments later.

The light of the other suddenly activated as Jacob's fleet came rushing clear out of relays grasp.

The jump into the new region of space was cut short as his tactical officer alerted him. "Sir picking up multiple unknown signals on intercept course."

"What?" He looked at the sensors as they picked objects on approach to their fleet much faster than he liked, the sudden blaring of alerts told him otherwise, the crew horrified at what was occurring they were being targeted.

"All ships break orbit from relay and move into tactical formation delta, the non-combatants are to withdraw to Shanxi and alert UNSC High command, the _Nostra-Liger_ and _Verde Stalker_ are to provide support on either side."

"Begin MAC and set at half charge, the Vulture gunships are to be deployed if the unknown ships are hostile, if so begin deployment of fighters around the flanks then begin forward assault, we'll break their fleet formation and scatter them, but only on my orders."

The unknowns came in to view; the stretched wing spans of eagle frames distinguished them from the hexagonal and boxy matte black armoured frame of the UNSC vessels, the fleet had consisted of medium sized ships approximately half to third the size of their own frigates, the 15 vessels faced off with the 9 of theirs excluding all support gunships and research vessels.

The seconds etched away as tensions rose, Jacob tries to signal the opposing fleet with a standard first contact greeting, there came no response then suddenly the unknown fleet opened fire.

The _Autumn _took three rounds starboard, though the shields had been active one struck the hull at high impact knocking the crew sideways, Jacob thought. 'What the hell, their using smaller MACs against us, where did they get MAC tech?'

Sara alerted him. "Sir the _Heath grow_ and _Long Show_ were hit minor damages to starboard and aft plating, it seems our opponents have also MACs but are incapable of larger or more powerful rounds, but further analysis suggest..."

"Sera stop!" She paused. "Sera we need to win first before we try and analyse them while their trying to KILL us." He turned his attention back to his fleet.

"All ships initiate evasive maneuverers and fire at will, prepare for ship to ship combat." The 9 UNSC ships returned fire; the massive 300kg slug of tungsten shot out at 50% the speed of light, this was one of the last thing enemy crews saw a massive slug impact against their vessels.

The _Dauntless Path _fired her dual MAC capable of firing three repeated shots each, six slugs flew out and only four struck, though the damage was distinguishable, two enemy ships lost their starboard plating and one cut clean open from the bow, the last impacted against the engine of a cruiser completely obliterating the vessel.

The crew of the _Autumn Leaves _watched as the battle progressed; the flanking maneuverers caught the enemy fleet in a bad position as both sides began pincer in on the centre of their fleet forcing them to scatter.

Though the second volley from the opposing ships caught the _Dauntless _and _Heath grow _in the forward section forcing them to evade, another vessel _Forever more _a frigate was struck across both sections of plating disabling their reactor, and one to an area near the bridge, the ship only had back up generator keeping them afloat.

Sorry for the late update and please remember to critique


	3. Halo Effect:CH2 Nostalgic?

"Nostalgic?"

/ Hell is Home / Written by Duran Majonovick and Co- 2589

Tactical officer Duran Majonovick watched as the multiple MAC rounds made contact with their ship, the young man was nocked of his feet and woke as the ship AI Mathis alerted him to what had occurred.

"Tactical officer Duran, the ship has taken multiple penetrations in shields and armour we will not be able to retreat, the core reactors and main thrusts are damaged only minimal gravity and life support, alert my computer core has been damaged unable to activate viral scavengers, alert enemy frigate on approach, we are cut off from main battle group cannot signal for assistance, should we initiate Cole protocol sir?"

The young officer realised that he was the only bridge crew still upright, the captain was gone and some of the bridge crew, he knew that others were probably down in the exterior of the ship. He replied.

"Mathis, do it as soon as we evacuate the rest of the crew, set the reactors to blow, get the remaining marines to repel boarders until evacuation is complete, I'll manually destroy the computer core."

Mathis nodded and then began the general evacuation orders as the young officer made his way through the ship to secure final procedures, the Cole protocol was to ensure that hostile forces did not have the ability to locate or trace important facilities or star systems and colonies, the young ensign made his way through to the computer core to purge the system before it was too late.

At that very moment the enemy frigate came into boarding range, the marines who had enough time got into position as the boarders made their way to the hatches.

Sargent Major Nathan Pierce watched the doors with his squad, the sudden clanking of metal on metal alerted them that someone had reached the airlock; his squad was ready to repel boarders as they set heavy weapons.

"Okay, check your fire people, make sure there's a good length of space, we'll give these scumbags hell and back, am I right marines?" A chorus of 'hoorah' followed.

Just as his squad was finally prepared the door began to sizzle as something had begun to cut through, the squad sighted rifles on the door and waited until it finally stopped. And then the door suddenly exploded, the shockwave was something they anticipated for standard shock and awe, the enemies rushed to hit them was not as awe, as moments after the explosion the two sides exchanged fire.

Nathan and his specialist Rey were pinned behind a bulkhead yelling orders and shooting, the enemy squads had anticipated the resistance and started insertions across the ship, and Nathan held the ground for as long as he could, but the attacks after a while began to wear him and his squad out just as the enemy began a final assault the last pods had escaped he ordered his squad to the drop pods.

As they made their way to their escape, Rey, Nathans best stealth unit, hacker, medic and also the only one carrying a smart AI in his suit was separated when a grenade detonated near a hatch, the auto sensors pricked it as an explosive decompression and began to seal the doors, Rey believed there was no way past so he decided to make his way to another set of pods, as he made it to one of the maintenance bays he found a single recon lander that had been forgotten during the rush.

He had to rewire the NAV and steering, it didn't take long, he finished and reached for the hatch and activated for opening, the Recon scouter buzzed to life and carried him and his AI Heather to safety.

Though Heather had a tendency to bug him she knew that it wasn't time especially when you make an emergency escape from an exploding ship, as the scouter made its way out, the ship exploded around them, nearly engulfing the pod as it accelerated to safety.

The _Forever More _was consumed in flames, Rey looked at the displays to see that the pod had not been fully repaired and the damaged while escaping hadn't helped, the stabilizers were shifting out of control and they were launched towards a planet in range of the relay.

He proceeded to say. "Heather that planet is getting rather close you know."

"I'm certainly sure the scouter is made for re-entry or else why would they have built it." She said with a cheery tone.

He replied calmly and in the most sarcastic comment. "Maybe because it's still a prototype and the gravity plating hadn't been fully welded or it just might be the fact the scouter has no shields."

All Heather could say was. "Oh."

The two watched as the now orbital pod made its way through the atmosphere and all Rey had to do was watch as the planet came to greet him.

Duran had reached the interior of the ship where the core was placed, from what he could hear on other levels he needed to finish this quickly, the core had three sections he already covered two and now had to finish the final one, the viral scavengers became active and started clearing the vital databases and star charts.

Duran turned around when the doors suddenly slid opened, two armoured avian alien figures appeared, the two opened fire as Duran ducked beneath a console and returned fire, the ship reactors were set all he had to do was hit the console and run, but he knew the two weren't going to let him out without a fuss.

"Damn my luck must suck; the day this happens I imagined would be Brutes, not some armoured raptor faced freaks, there has to be a way out of this room." Duran remembered the core ran directly on top of the lower hanger bay, there was supposed to be a maintenance duct right under the core. Jacob had no choice; he either stays or dies or run death and then try to out run a fiery death.

'The choices I have to make.' He thought.

He waited for the two to get close enough for him to blast with the coolant tank, the two finally got in range, he hit the tanks and coolant blast washing over the two slowing them enough for Jacob to make a run for the maintenance hatch, he also hit the remote trigger for the core overload.

As the timer ran the seconds so did he.

Nathan and his squad were used to the drills, the rush of getting into a HEV and the rattle of it being thrown at high speeds, but this was open space not planet side, the jump was just be to out range of the explosion.

The ship detonated so fast that all he saw was a blur of heat and fire surrounding his HEV as they made their escape, he watched as the ship he served on for three years vanished in a blind flash of light, the crew of more than 700 barely survived.

"Someone is going to pay, real bad." He muttered to himself, he looked back at all of his fellow soldiers now drifting apart in space.

Duran had been lucky only to have just making his hasty exit as the ship detonated, the remaining crew and the marines made it off ship, Jacob managed to get Mathis off ship with him, and the only problem now was. "Where do we go? The fleet can't help us and those aliens aren't going to be very happy about what we just did."

His train of thought was interrupted as Mathis alerted him. "Lieutenant Commander Duran I'm detecting a planet ahead, I managed to scan as we entered the system before the attack but was unable to alert the captain, the planet is mostly a nitrogen oxygen atmosphere breathable, the problem is there are multiple energy signatures in high concentrations, probably cities maybe industry, the planets EM fields are hard to scan past."

Duran reflected upon what course of action left. "There isn't many options Mathis we either stay up here where our beacons can attract a lot of attention, the locals though aren't going to like what we just did and second the fleet is going to fall back and they will only cover our sudden bail out only so long, tell the remaining pods and crew to head at specific points and tell them to get planet side ASAP."

"Acknowledged, calling alert through E-band to all units."

Nathan and his marines were not having a good day the fact that they just ejected into space via HEV, and a specialist prototype Rey was missing most likely MIA but he didn't want to rule out he might have made it planet side.

The Pelican drop ships that picked them up were welcome but now the damn Navy wanted them to get planet side because the fleet had just left them hanging in space with no support.

And now they had only one option left make an emergency drop onto a planet without any tactical data either than the fact it has a lot of life signs most of which knew or not knew of what transpired in space, but still better on the ground than space.

"Well, as we say, what do we do marines?"

A sudden burst of 'Hoorah' came over the channels as Nathan dropped down towards the planet.

The crew of one repair pelican started final preparations for planetary re-entry, Duran was thankful to have been found by them and two of the other command crew, Daniel Drake and Lilith White were the two fire control and navigations officers, they never really talked though on the ship.

He really couldn't figure what to do, the fact that there was no way to escape or the fact that he and most of the crew were now going to have to improvise. 'That doesn't give a great vote of confidence.' He thought to himself.

The drop ship turned to make descent angle, the pelican rattled every so often until they made it past the lower atmosphere, the pilot called over the intercom. "Sir making final approach to rally point delta, the area seems clear that and from what we can tell, we'll pop the hatch when we close the distance.

Nathan remembers the simulations when making drops, the rapid acceleration at mark 3, he looks out of the window seeing the other pods in the distance, then as the cloud cover disappears he realises that he was heading straight into a forest, the emergency boosters activate as he braces for impact.

His final thought. 'Just like home.'

Duran received emergency Com chatter as he realised the ATVs had gone off course, the revolutions of the planet and cloud cover had forced them to guess their landing, but their estimations of a safe landing had been off by a few km's, the Pelican made its final descent onto a grassy plateau, the crews from other pods had gathered there with most of the marine platoons, the officers in charge were taking immediate stock of who and what they had.

And the engineers were unloading all able vehicles that they managed to save from the _Forever More, _now all they had to do was make sure that nothing else went wrong, to his left he saw the prefab medical bunker set for the wounded, most were from the fire fight on the ship, while others from the jump.

Duran and the two other command crew made their way to the command bunk, a modified prefab base was being used for command; it was the largest one around and the only one with an antenna.

"No, it's not like that could possibly attract any attention now could it?" Mathis said with most humorously sarcastic voice.

The doors slid open as Duran and others waited for remaining officers to make their entry, the hustle was mostly marines and a handful of navy, the crew hushed as the highest ranking officer.

Colonel Patrick Gide a tall veteran from operations in clearing loyalist pockets had been the only highest ranking officer even though he was retired but he had stayed to help after his services, he had fought during the Covenant war and had more than just commendations.

The captain and most of the other senior officers on the bridge were killed when the ship was struck so now it fell to Patrick to take command, though slightly greying around his head; he still had his brilliant combat capable mind.

"Listen in ladies and gentlemen we are no longer in the security of UNSC and it is unlikely we will make it back anytime soon, the first rule for me is not to panic, I don't need to say why though, we are well behind hostile lines and they'll come looking for us soon, we need a plan." The officers looked at each other and most were in discussion of what to do next. Duran watched anxiously as the pattern of those lost in the forests came through, the approximate number suggested two whole squads had dropped out of contact, and the rest unaccounted for.

Nathan woke, his head ached, and he felt as though a ton of bricks had rammed him, this was not far from the truth considering he had crashed clean into a tree which from what he could tell was old.

To be told it was evening from what he could see in the spider web cracks over the glass window it didn't take a genius, he checked all his gear, rifle check, SMG check, visor check, and everything to blast open a tank check, he sighed, the first time in enemy territory, he hit the switch to blast the emergency hatch, three seconds later the door flew off. "So much for being discrete, then again who said ODST were ever discrete?"

He laughed as he jumped into the great unknown, or three feet of swamp.

"Well we said feet first, I guess this count's as one."

He said as he trod across the mucky field.


	4. Halo Effect:CH3 Home Sweet Home

3.0

Please note that this was rushed please tell me if there is something wrong my head is killing me okay.

Home Sweet Home

Rey had awoke to find himself alive and kicking, though when he tried to move his body, it ached of pain from being tossed at sonic speeds and thrown hard against the ground, his harness held with being pushed against by a half ton Freelancer.

The sounds of the night from outside of his pod seemed to sound more like cars and traffic with some crowds mumbling about; the reality struck him harder than the pod. 'I crashed into a populated area?'

The young specialist rushed to get his gear; the sounds outside seemed more louder than before as he gathered his things, he got his MA1k combine carbine, a silenced pistol, plasma rifle, a set of grenades, VISR, hacking gear, and last of all his modified Mk V Recon armour.

The suit was developed as the successor to the MK VI Spartan armour, though it was also designed to look like a mix of the MK V but has the elegance of the elites that gave the name 'Vindicator' because the of the Haybusa, the vindicator was also equipped with a katana energy sword courteously given by a Spec Ops elite commander who tutored him during his time on Provident an elite home world.

The naturally grown augmentations and his unique physical structure as well as being secretly designated as a 'Freelancer' by most of the UNSC his existence was kept hidden from most of the public because of the previous public backlash when everyone learnt of the Spartan II/III.

But he was different, the family he was born into gave him a choice, the young child was bright at the early age of six, and had a promising chance to be part of a programme for humanity, the parents tried to hold him back, but after lengthy talks and assurances they accepted, Rey never looked back on that decision.

He finally cleared his crash and pulled apart the doors of the scouter, jumping into the open city night. The place where he landed was just out of sight of everyone else, he had crashed into a construction site and he was over nine stories up from the main floor, the city was a bustle of lights more than that of New Mombasa or Haze, the final checks from Heather concluded that he was definitely alone.

"So cowboy what, are doing next? Next what Jumping out an airlock without a parachute? Kicking a Brute chieftain in the crotch?" Rey smacked the side of his helmet when he wanted her to stop and replied. "We need to blend in Heather not cause a scene, and if we're lucky we might be able help the UNSC behind enemy lines."

He turned his attention back to the scouter; the scouter had made a soft landing. Or what could be considered a soft landing if it meant head first through three stories above and somehow not being noticed.

Time went quickly as he gathered his possession and hid them, the sound of a vehicle caught his attention, he made a quick run down the stairs, the sound of a few sirens came and he knew that it was time to go, stealthily making his way to the alleyway not far from the building.

Heather informed him. "Rey getting new traffic over the 'extranet' or something like a local net, the local police have secured the pod and are looking for survivors, although they didn't see you they do know that you have military training and have placed out a warning for anyone who had seen newcomers anywhere, either than that were fine but you from what I've seen around here you're going to need a translator, thankfully I've sent the alien translation through to your neural implant, it will take time but you'll get the hang of it."

The city light filtered around him he had landed in the lower part of a large city, the city itself was alive from what he saw, the alleyway he stood in was damp and unusually smelled of old newspaper, proceeded to sticking to the shadows.

The alleyways looked clean or at least better than most compared to other colonies he had visited, he continued to walk until he reached the corner some market place, the place was a buzz of activity but he would still stick out, it wasn't hard not to notice an armoured figure with weapons and alien gear on.

There wasn't any cover for him and he didn't look like any of the different species, he continued to walk around buying and eating, and bargaining and haggling of items, Nathan had never seen something like this since a visit to a covenant colony of Hyrprees but nothing more humanoid than elites and a few grunts.

The Freelancer proceeded to look for something to cover over his dark azure armour searching he found a few long black tarps and covers, quickly working he turned them into a type of hooded coat that covered most but his helmet and he proceeded to removing any insignia.

He walked out of the alleyway inconspicuously a few minutes later, a few did noticed the stranger in black coat and smooth silver helmet but most were too busy to pay any attention besides this was the lower section of the city no one really cared.

Rey walked through the city district, the stores he saw were filled with unique objects and items, and as Rey walked he found himself at a store the in further parts of the city that at least looked promising, from the other 'Varren on stick' stall he saw back.

The shop looked as dingy as it seemed welcoming, a small group of people outside from what he could tell they were covered full in some type of environmental suits, he walked in carefully, the chime of a bell told the owner someone had arrived, a young woman from what he could tell from the voice greeted him. "Welcome to Nav'iel Supplies."

The young woman paused as she realised that the person she was talking to wasn't from around, she really didn't want to ask any questions but this was the first time a species not like a Turain or fellow Quarian had entered, the figure paused for a moment as it began to move around.

She thought. 'Well this is new, this guy isn't from around and he looks like he's hiding something, maybe a military personnel, and that suit… never seen that design, but this is strange he's bipedal and it is a 'he' right?'

Rey knew he didn't have any actual money he was walking about, Heather piped in an interesting idea. "Rey we still have a magnetic data slate right? Then why don't we try using a modified energy pulse and charge the data stream over it, the data I'll send would register as a positive, because I hacked the systems extranet, the data on our ID is new but that should avoid some detection, also I caught something about strange sightings near the forests on the far outskirts of the city, it looks like most of the surviving crew made landfall."

She pondered about the man, until he was looking straight at her, then proceeded to looking at the items in the shelves at the miscellaneous isle, he took interest in some data slates though, picking a hand few from codex's and local maps, looked through some of the food stuffs that were kept there, when he finished he walked up to her and asked with what she could say was almost robotic voice. "Hello, I have recently arrived here, but what types of exchanges are there?"

She looked at him puzzled behind her mask. "There are only credits chits around here why would you need an exchange?"

The man proceeded to pulling out a small data card attached from his and said. "They are kind of different but you wouldn't mind do you?"

The young quarian looked at the data card and registered it, sending it through and was approved paying for the materials the being had chosen, the Quarian answered. "Thank you and have a nice day, do you need a bag?"

"No, thank you." The person declined politely.

But before Rey left, the young alien asked. "Excuse me, but you're not from around here are you?"

Rey answered calmly. "No let's just say very recent." Nav'iel proceeded to ask. "Where do you come from?"

"I come from somewhere very far away." He answered.

Rey needed somewhere he could stay. "You wouldn't happen to know any hotels or motels around here do you or anywhere I can work?"

Nav'iel was curious; the person was trying to get out of sight. "Yes there are Turian shelters and they usually have a lot of people sharing to just one room, the hotels are mostly on the other side of the city and most of the shelters here are packed, you know the rural increases and change in population have kind of swelled and the local merc gangs aren't going to leave you out in the streets untouched."

Rey was running out of options. "Shelter where there is little privacy and more likely to get discovered or streets where I'm likely to get robbed or attacked, this day keeps getting better and better." The hotels were also out of the question seeing the card won't work without being noticed by the local police and there and the fact he's carrying guns, with the exception of the police forces searching for the mysterious aliens in the district.

Nav'iel had thought of something. 'If he stays, he might help with the Turians from attacking the store again, the protection fees are ridiculous, and he looks just as likely to help if asked, maybe, maybe I should.'

Nav'iel interrupted his train of thoughts. "You know you could stay here, I'm not unreasonable in pricing but the spare room inside might help for a night or two."

Rey was taken aback. 'Why is she asking me to stay, I'm an unknown figure and she wants me to stay in a back room for the night, then again I really don't have many options or choices.'

Rey hesitated, and then asked. "I'll stay for the night, how much though?"

"Not much, probably free for the first night then 75 credits afterwards."

Nav'iel was glad, the man wanted to stay but she was unsure if using him would be a good idea, when Rey had asked where to go. "The room is just at the back past the work table with the red sign above, it isn't cramped but rather messy."

The man nodded in acknowledgement and walked to the back, the room was as Nav'iel described it, messy stacks of old paper a few data slates lying on the table and a few gadgets.

Heather found this humorous. "Why is it the next big alien species we meet suddenly so different, you know, I kind of miss those straight forward clean looking corridors of the Sanghelli, even if they were coloured, purple."

Rey couldn't help but clean up the room, packing the stuff off the floor and swiping the room down with a cloth, the room practically sparkled a few minutes later, this habit of cleaning was from a strange elite who had a tendency to clean everything and keep order and discipline with thoroughness, guess it kind of rubs off after a while.

'Master always said to keep clean, keep healthy, and something about mandibles.' Rey moved around the room picking the papers and data pads up.

Nav'iel couldn't help but wonder how he cleaned the room so quickly, the armoured man also started cleaning everything he walked past, and the store in less than an hour looked cleaner than what it had been for the last three years since she bought it.

He just cleaned and stacked through the store until closing time. 'Like a well-oiled machine.' Only realising the irony, she thought of.

She asked him as he finished. "Thank you for cleaning the shop; umm do you want a drink?"

Rey kindly declined the offer, he asked her. "You know I don't think we had proper introductions."

He put his hand out to shake hers. "I'm known as Rey, but my last name is something I'd rather not talk about."

"I am Nav'eil vas _Nuvalie' _nar _Rayya, _I am the owner of this store, and what, was once a ship."

After their brief introductions both had gone to their rooms, Rey had what was left of his MREs in his ruck sack and a few other items. While Nav'iel had her dinner in her room, she had busied herself with work to complete and everything she had to take note in case of tonight.

The night was relatively quiet either than the usual sound of shuttles going past or people. A loud hammer fall on the store front door said something else. "Hey open up, your security payment is well over due."

Rey got into out of his chair, he hadn't slept, he was reading his codex from the quarian as he learnt about their history and the Citadel, the doors were hammered on again, Rey picked up his combat knife and helmet, and he met Nav'iel in the lounge. "What's going on?"

The quarian sighed and told him. "I'm sorry the reason I let you stay was because the local gang was threatening me about security pay, and local police don't pay us quarians any attention, either than charging us with crimes, I was hoping that you would stay to help."

Rey remembered what his mentor told him. "You make decisions some decisions will be harder and sometimes clearer but remember it is never black and white, do what you can for those whom need it and you will become great or a failure." Or something similar to what his mentor said.

'So much for that, it really doesn't help now.'

He turned to Nav'iel and said. "I'll make sure they don't comeback."

The gang members a group of Turians in stripped black and yellow armour knocked again, this time the doors opened, the Turians stepped back as a tall figure easily a few inches taller than their leader strolled out.

The voice that spoke was clear and robotic and yet calm. "You know that it's rude to wake someone at night."

Their leader Variuss a Turian who had formed the gang five years ago, confronted the stranger. "Who are you and where's the quarian?"

He didn't even move at the sight of the five of them against just one, he replied in a cold tone. "She isn't available right now, so if you got something then tell me."

Variuss had it with him, no one faced off with him, and drew his pistol to the face of the person, that was the last thing he ever saw, Rey grabbed it as Variuss drew and using a knife in the right hand of his vest rammed it down Variuss' throat.

The others reacted to what had occurred, one tried to fire a shotgun but Rey pulled his knife out and sidestepped, dogging the rounds fired a shot that nearly blew his helmet off, the others soon followed except one who got close enough for Rey to twist the knife into, he faced him and the smashed his helmet into the aliens face.

Nav'iel stepped out into the carnage, the ground had five corpses including the leader, the other thing that she saw was the face of her saviour Rey's helmet was off he was holding it and cleaning the blood stains off.

His head was of mostly white and hair short spiky black, he also had a pale skinned face and pale white eyes, the sight of him made her gasp this was a new species she had met, and Rey simply stood there for a few moments only noticing Nav'iel when he turned around to collect his helmet, he looked at her and said. "We need to talk."

The clean-up happened fast Rey simply moved the bodies out of sight, the last thing he wanted was to attract unwanted attention, the two met in his room, Rey was concerned feeling the distrust between them, the feeling was mutual, Nav'iel had used him, and he hid his existence from the public as a threat to security.

She was the first to ask. "Thank you, with the Turians, but I need to know why you never said anything about you being a new species."

Rey hesitated, he thought about the consequences of talking. 'Should I tell her, if she does then I'm done for if not she may call them anyway.'

He would tell her the truth. "How, I should tell you can cause more problems than actually solve them."

Nav'iel placed her hands down. "Well I figured as much but why?"

Rey was sure she was honest. "I can't because of first contact protocols never really suited me."

Nav'iel was confused. "Why?"

Rey had the feeling that 'Freelancer had other meanings other than a secret project. "No but a genetically engineered super soldier from childhood isn't something the Citadel would look to kindly upon."

Nav'iel now understood how he took down five armed Turains, the thought of genetically changing someone at childhood to be a killing machine. "Wait, aren't there restrictions on doing this to someone in your society?"

Rey was not concerned he needed someone to trust but if things got out of hand he'd have to calm her. "There is, but I'm a special case, you see the (UNSC) had a war with a homogeny of alien species over fifty years ago calling themselves the Covenant.

They devastated humanity to desperation, but with billions dead we still fought, the Spartan program a group of children were used in the experiment to create a solution to stopping the annihilation of mankind, they waged unrelenting warfare for more than twenty years until the end.

But after the war peace was brought between the two sides, the Independent Republic of nations the separatist faction of the covenant formed with us, but the threat on colonies during rebuilding was too much, the UNSC and Republic allowed for a new program.

And the Freelancer program was formed, the UNSC kept this out of public view in case of backlash, and my family was chosen in secret, my parents gave me up when I was little, the reason was because the UNSC had offered to protect and compensate my family, and I spent my entire life as the first prototype."

Nav'iel did not know how to respond. 'Keelah he wasn't lying that's for sure, but that's horrible to give up him as a child to be experimented on as a living weapon, the Council would have the 'Freelancer' close down if they got the chance.'

Rey then asked her a question. "So are you going to introduce yourself?"

She felt embarrassed, she knew that it was rude not to tell someone about herself especially when they had done so. "I am a quarian as you already know, I had finished my pilgrimage, and my rite of passage into adulthood a few years ago until an accident claimed the ship I was accepted upon, the crew survived but we were stranded like you. Our emergency beacon went out as we crashed, and for over three years we lived on this planet, I myself started this business and tried to support the community, the few dozen were soon rescued but a few had decided to stay on the planet to make do, rather than go into space, it hasn't been the best of times, but we survive."

Rey placed his own personal history. "If you want to know, the family I belonged to when I was six was always strong; my parents loved me with all their heart, my younger siblings and then my grand-parents, though I was the gifted one, I had enhanced gene therapy before I was born to help with later growth development, and my mind had been active at a very young age, I had learnt maths and basic science all the sorts of things most kids my age couldn't, the end result was that the UNSC had seen me as a prime opportunity to help mankind and came to my parents, though at first they thought it was bad until they offered only to help and ensure my safety, that was the last time I saw my family."

Rey paused at the very thought of his family, his mother's hair, the call of his brother and sister haunted his dreams and his thoughts, the sense of loss went by and resumed.

"After that, military training, and few other candidates I had learned to call family even though we were just a unit of kids being trained like soldiers, we had genetic adaptations grown into our bodies when we were younger to help the process and lower the risk of death.

The classes went into quantum physics to basic maths only for the more brighter it was physics, and others it was cooking to mechanics, I myself learnt to become a field agent mostly in tactical and strategic, when I became twelve me and the others in the first generation were also soon to graduate into our final stages.

The process took three days, three days of surgical procedures and gene therapy, and by the end we became Freelancers but in the process some didn't make it, the catch was simple, survive but just under a quarter of the two hundred select Freelancers died or were crippled."

There was an awkward pause.

She finally spoke after the pause. "Well what are we going to do, I know of your existence and your people are at war with the Turians, though it wouldn't end well."

That was what Rey knew, the Turians weren't too sure where he was but he knew he had to hide. "Is there any way off world?"

Nav'iel looked at him. "Yes but the chances of getting on board without being noticed are slim they aren't going to let you walk through the terminal, and the chances of getting a ship are also low, the prices are kind of high around here, especially ones in good condition."

Rey reflected on his situation, the fact he has a local whose now knows of his existence and the war that was about to break loose and the fact that he needed to find the other survivors. "I'll just have to do what I can, but in the meantime, I need to find the others, there'll be patrols and search parties hunting the survivors, but if I can get them to safety this will be easier for me to escape and for the survivors to, I'm not asking your help but it's your decision."

Nav'iel paused she had now caught herself in a crossfire.

"I'll see what I can do but I'm not really sure."

The two departed to their separate rooms, Nav'iel now felt as though the galaxy was now on her shoulders. "Keelah what did I get myself into?"


	5. Halo Effect:CH4 Today,Tomorrow,Yesterday

4.0

Duran and the survivors had been surveying the area, the forests not too far from the city which in hindsight was the worst possible place to have built a hidden base, the place was lit up, search teams combed the area and set up checkpoints, the remaining marines and crew had to move soon.

From what they could tell there was an outpost the 'Turians' now known had built to cover over the area, the only way through would be an indirect course following a river that goes to a derelict warehouse, the warehouse was more of a factory used during the early settlement of the planet, the locals never pay attention to anything there so it probably seemed like the best place to hide.

The problem with this is the moving, the teams were made of two warthogs with both machine guns and missile launchers and one large elephant transport, the elephants were slow and the only reason they survived was because the research team was ordered to prep ground recon to the nearest oxygen nitrogen planet they encountered.

Their reluctant early bird policy saved lives as most of the crew were stuck in the hangar when the hull plates buckled in the middle of the ship, severing escape routes, the pilots of the drop ships were prepared before-hand when the attack came they knew what to do.

The mission needed one vital part, a distraction, the diversion of enemy forces was necessary, teams of ODST had to be organised to attack multiple perimeter points and then fall back to a safe zone, during this all aircraft were to give fire support and proceed to a separate safe zone, the plan was simple enough but there was one issue, the Turians had set up a large AA battery well behind the perimeter, the gun had the effective range to orbital fire so there was no way to move in by air, the gun had to be destroyed.

Mathis the AI of the ship was ordered to find all he could about the local species, the 'extranet' as the locals called it was an intricate network of interstellar communications over the galaxy relayed by the Mass Relays, the simple task of hacking was relatively easy seeing there was no protection from AI, as AI technology was considered illegal in council space.

The chances of him being discovered were slim, but safety first, as he travelled he deleted any footprints he have left, the funny thing to him was as though someone was following him, the ghostly image of another he thought he had seen seemed familiar that was until they finally chased each other through the net until he ended to a shop in the lower district of the city.

He found out that it was Heather; she had tricked him within range of the shop. "Mathis, I should have known it was you, you tend to leave a lot more than you think."

He replied. "Well at least I'm not the one who prods everything in range; it's good to see you to."

A smile crept over his face. "Good news, the UNSC survivors are safe, but." Heather knew whenever there was 'but' it would mean something bad.

"But, the search teams the Turians sent out are getting close and closer than we'd like, the colonel Patrick Gide has taken command of our situation as the most veteran soldier, we're planning to evacuate to a safe zone within the city limits, but there's a complication."

He brought up a display of the plan and the complications. "The Turians have set up a defensive AA turret and we can't strike while that thing is active, the flyboys need help, we need you and Rey to get into the enemies base and disable the turret, the rest is simple after disabling it we can move to the city relatively undetected."

Heather sighed. "Why do we always get the fun jobs?" Mathis interjected "Maybe because you two are the only ones who can do it."

An hour later, Rey came home, the shop was as usual quiet and tidy, the jobs he had to do weren't, his armour had a few new scratches and wearing, the place he had been working at was a salvage yard.

The amount of ships and equipment there had to be scraped and recycled but the sheer size would take years and more money the city would bother throwing at, so the plan was let others do it, though it was a menial task it was good pay for those who found rare items, Rey had been digging through piles of scrap metals and ship parts for nearly three hours.

He managed to find some minor adaptations to add to his armour and his weapons, the scrap guys didn't really care that he was an illegal alien, they simply let him work his way through, and the remainder of the day was locating interesting upgrades and selling back some scrap.

When he got home, the only greeting he had was Heather returning inside his head and telling him the news. "Welcome home Rey, here's all the good news."

The operation had to begin the next night at mid because the planet had two moons on similar orbits the night becomes very dark, the plan was to go into a silent run, Rey had to disable an AA cannon on the outskirts of the city, from what he was told the enemy will be to occupied to stop them, from hitting the base.

Nav'iel had been informed that Rey was going to go on a mission, the mission had been to get his people into the city, but there might be a chance he wouldn't return, Nav'iel had never liked the idea of harming anyone, but when she started on her pilgrimage she had standard weapons training and had a naturally good shot, but never liked the idea of actually harming anyone.

At first she wanted to decline but Rey and his people's lives were at stake, Rey needed help, she thought of helping a soldier of a people at war with the turians, her people had been discriminated against constantly and this wouldn't help if she was discovered assisting in sabotage of the turian forces garrisoned there.

'But then again what good have they done for any of us, either than complain about the mistakes in the past.'

"Why should I help?" She asked cautiously. Rey had figured this might happen. "I'm not saying you have to but I'd be grateful if you did, the people I represent have never been on anyone's good list but we need help where we get it."

Nav'iel had thought it through. The galaxy had less love of the Quarians and yet Rey was willing to protect her from anything, and he had gone and proven it. She replied. "I'll help only because you're so insistent, and that and I want to know what you're planning to do, and besides I'm already helping you aren't I?"

If Rey could see her face he was sure she was smiling. The rest of the night he planned to make his attack on the base, and returned to the hidden cache to get extra ammo and gear:

MA9C assault rifle

BR71SRs (Battle rifle)

M6D Magnums with scope

M7S CSMGs and a M51 rocket launcher

AIE-486H Heavy Machine gun

Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (Otherwise known as a Spartan Laser)

Grenade launcher

SRS 1AR with Oracle-XI scope

Prototype hacking gear

Field gear: bubble shields, deployable cover, TR/9 AP mines, over shield mods, active cloaking (permanent mod gear), Digital holographic display slate, HE C20D and one Jetpack courtesy of the UNSC

And not to forget his favourite gear; the special treat left by the UNSC, the Stalker AG-0X AT – Hover bike, the bike was an engineering feat, the covenant engineers had spent large amount of time developing the special stealth armour, Stalker engines active anti-gravity system and Plasma cannons installed into the front, enough room for two and missile pods, the bike was meant for atmospheric and land combat, the bike was still in prototype stages.

Rey flew back to the store and hid it behind, the gear he gathered were almost ready, not to forget his special piece; the honour blade found by the elites when they discovered a ruin on Hypress gave him something special for defeating a loyalist chieftain with his hands, the crystal light blade.

If there was ever a arsenal Rey had to have the most unique, the thought of energy weaponry was astounding, most of her people had never really seen it or any other species, the weaponry had a mix of both UNSC and Republic, a few other items also got her attention, the active camouflage was impressive she had never believed permanent cloaking was possible without a large energy source until he vanished.

The Spartan laser was also impressive, the idea of using hand held lasers were impossible as most were too large and had to be mounted, and required much energy a normal soldier usually doesn't carry.

The equipment was also an amazing sight she had never seen an old model assault rifle in her life, bullets were considered obsolete, but the MA9C was different, magnetic accelerator technology had been reduced to fire moderately different shells, the rounds were 9.75mm but the overall weight and size was less.

The rifle had a titanium round that was ionised while in the rifle, the round and magnetically accelerates at 1/4th the speed of light, the rifle had a micro fusion pulse generator with a life expectancy of 250 years.

MA9C Rifle was also designed to have something called Fujika-Shaw trans-light system; the bullet accelerates under speed of light thanks to the ionisation and the integrity field stable as it exits thus the round doesn't shatter on impact with any opposing fields, the usefulness of this keeps the power of the bullet only when it passes through a shield or flesh, the bullet on top of the list is fired at 1/5-1/4 to the speed of light, this and a coolant system installed to rapidly cool the chamber of the rifle.

The most part of the day was to prepare and Rey was prepped, but a loud scream came from his room. He rushed into the room to find that Nav'iel was staring at Heather in solid state; the projection of Heather came from the digital data slate that formed the necessary particles for her existence.

Nav'iel shouted at Rey. "Why didn't you warn me before that you had an AI with you?"

He was going to reply but Heather go to it first. "Rey was not trying to alarm you, but he knew that revealing me would be too soon, and your kind have had a bit of history with computers."

Nav'iel angrily responded. "Rey, my people were slaughtered 700 years ago because of our creations, AI technology was banned in council space for good reasons, AI technology was considered too dangerous and my people were exiled and branded as monsters for accidently creating partially sentient machines."

Rey spoke out in a calmer tone. "Nav'iel, the UNSC had AI technology longer than you and we had never had a problem, we learnt to accept their existence as one of our own creations and we've advanced from there, I trust you and I trust Heather but I'm asking you to work together I'm not saying you have to be friends, the mission begins soon we can't compromise now."

Nav'iel looked at him and calmed, there wasn't any reason not to trust him, but how he talked about the AI like it was alive annoyed her, there was a limit but she knew better than to cause problems, especially when it was at a critical point in time. "Fine I'll work with it but I do not trust it till it proves to me otherwise."

After the argument Rey walked out of the room glad the situation didn't escalate, he let Nav'iel and Heather work out how they were going to strike the base.

Nav'iel looked at the AI uneasy; Heather on the other hand was busy processing the plans for the attack, Nav'iel joined in to plan for the coming attack, Heather was also surfing the net to see what the quarians were so hated for, the Geth as they were called were a sentient creation of the quarians but by an complete accident, the Geth tried to defend themselves as their creators attempted to destroy them.

Heather proceeded to ask Nav'iel. "The boundaries of understanding is always limited to what we do, your people panicked at the Geth for something that could have been easily resolved, can I ask why?"

Nav'iel was caught off guard by the question but quickly tried to respond. "That depends on what you mean."

Heather looked at her and said. "Well why another option wasn't ever chosen either than war, the Geth from what I have learnt had no intention of ever brining harm to your ancestors yet they seemingly panicked and responded with violence."

Nav'iel was annoyed but also surprised. "Why they never thought of it was that the Geth were going to rebel against us and the people decided that acting first was necessary, I guess we'll never know."

And Nav'iel decided to ask. "I'm curious but how are you so stable, most AI have been failures due to lack of proper function and decompiled, yet you seem almost perfectly well, the other thing I was wondering was how did your people get along with AI?"

Heather knew that she would ask something like this and replied. "AI were developed during the early 26th century using advanced neural replication of cloned bodies, the process would destroy the living sample but create an active intelligence, the years of development since have helped seeing as over the years from the 1st generation had gained the respect and support of many giving special sentient status, I am the 3rd generation of smart AI we made massive improvements with the Independent Republic, their living computer species called engineers helped produce advancements with their bio-intelligence to form into one active neural system thus expanding AI life expectancy exponentially also allowing more proper creation of AI without unnecessary risk of life."

"The average life expectancy has risen to more than 81 years and more newer projects have arrived, the UNSC and joint also created a prototype android they call him Alpha but I don't really know him, but Alpha likes to call himself Alphonse or Avery he can't decide yet he is the smartest AI designed with a life expectancy of more than 150 years."

Nav'iel looked astounded. "Wait you telling me that most of AI has sentient status in society and the fact you possess androids with same status is also fine?"

Heather replied tersely. "Of course the years of effort pushed by public opinion to have smart AI and Alpha pushed to more sensible levels were agreed upon by humanitarians enforcing it wasn't very hard seeing most people had been happy with the outcome of the war thanks to AI."

Nav'iel wondered if her people could have ever gotten along with their creation, if their people could have coexisted with the Geth then no one would have suffered the tragedy of the Morning War, but the council would still have exiled them.

"Well whatever the case maybe I'll only help till the end after this Rey would probably decide."

The two continued to plot the next course of action.


	6. Halo Effect:CH5 Hell from Above

5.0

Hell from Above

The night had come, the dreary streets of the lower city, the hustle of markets, the nightclubs and bars, the whole night was alive, but Rey wasn't here for a drink he had passed through the skies in his cloaked Stalker ATV with Nav'iel clinging to him, the quarian had never been on a bike and really didn't like the fact the bike had very little inertial dampeners either than the landing gear and cushioning, the UNSC hadn't really thought that anyone either than Rey would on the bike, but still nothing had gone wrong yet.

Meanwhile…

Nathan and his platoon were ordered to attack specific checkpoints and outposts when the turians had left their base, the time to the attack had depended on the fact there would be air support but until the AA canon was gone it was too much of a risk, the plan would go on even if the AA wasn't down the convoy had to get through no matter what.

As he and his squad managed to reach the designated positions, Nathan ordered his snipers to take positions above the turians line of sight and the rest ready to rush the base defences, the attack had only half an hour until the convoys were prepped and another 10 when they begin to clear the base.

Nathan also knew that Rey and Heather was alive but the attack had to begin for them to get into the enemy's main base to bring the AA turret down, Nathan had known somehow that Rey would survive the kid was tough and anyone could tell that Nathan hoped the Rey was ready to take on the turians or if the turians were ready for him.

At turian fire base- city outskirts

Rey could see the base, there were over 29-35 guards with a few vehicles and some security grade Loki mechs, the base was a standard base it had regulars and some more elite, the base wasn't going to be hard but , there were over 4 assault gunships and a few very heavy mechs, the mechs were easy for him, the larger gunships were not, on the other hand he still had the element of surprise and he had a lot of heavy weapons, the mission was simple bring down the AA battery for air support while the main force strikes the outposts and checkpoints, the convoy from main base will move while the attack happens.

Rey jumped down from his perch, he was going hunting.

Nav'iel memorised the plan and what she needed to do, the base had certain access points for maintenance and when Rey attacks she moved through from her hiding spot to go sabotage the main AA gun she had to move when Ray signalled her, the signal would be very audible from what he told her.

Rey activated his active camouflage and slipped past the guards, he made his way to the base hanger; the night had worked to his advantage as the guards had never suspected the front guard of the hanger doors simply vanish.

Rey, thought the process through, he had placed over a dozen small HE C20 charges onto the gunships, the timers were set only to detonate when they took off, the next objective was to disable the main command centre and wreak havoc on the communications.

Duran watched for any signal that the attack had begun, the colonel told for all the scientists and naval officers to accompany the main convoy, Duran wanted to help and asked for operations on the one of the Vulture class gunship' the problem was they had to hold until they confirmed that the AA guns had been destroyed.

Nathan and his squad were twitchy; the guards had nearly spotted them twice and he wasn't willing to let that happen on the third time, the patrols had headed out looking for the base and that gave them a half an hour to strike and the operation began within 5 minutes.

Rey had snuck past another group prepping for battle, with a minute left before operation began, when a loud explosion detonated far out in the outskirts.

Nathan had not been expecting one thing, the demo charges the tactical teams left had been only off by the minute ripping apart the outpost wall before any of the others could react, the attack had been slightly pre-emptive but the situation had changed the marines went into offensive to cover for the extra time, Nathan loaded his Battle rifle and started to fire yelling. "Come on you leather necks! It's time to show them what the marines can do!" With that a chorus of 'Hoorah' followed by the gunfire.

M808B Scorpion MBT

The explosion had been a few moments off but it signalled the attack, all the enemy outposts were hit at once, catching the turian forces by surprise, the response was quick though with their commander Vass'vier ordering the launch of all gunships to support their forces, unknown to the commander the gunships at his base suddenly detonated inside the hanger causing panic between most of the troops, Rey's plan had worked, now there were only a few things to deal with.

Nav'iel heard the signal alright, the explosion shook the maintenance tunnel, she continued until she reached a secure lock, the lock wasn't hard to open, the few moments on hacking released the door allowing her to get to the main conduit, the AA battery room wasn't very heavily guarded and with Rey providing a distraction most of the troops were occupied outside trying to stop him.

Nav'iel crawled past in the duct behind a console and began her work bypassing the security and rewriting the system codes, she disabled the auto fire and targeting calibrations, the turret wasn't fully down yet, the coolant tanks below or the power conduits had to be removed to disable the battery, Nav'iel crawled back out to get into the duct to find a way there.

The sound of gunfire and detonations had increased since the operation began, the turians had stepped up their defences as the marines attempted to break them, the distraction had gone well, from what he and the others heard the first e convoys had made their runs and the last two were on their way, the marines had to hold the ground only a bit longer so they could clear away.

Duran winced as more gunfire came across.

He thought. "Just another day in hell."


	7. Halo Effect:CH6 Not such a bad day

6.0 And into the breach

Here's for all of the Freelancer fans out there.

(Not complete because of: Fate is never set)

This is covering the last chapter before we head back to Jacob.

Rey waited for Nav'iel, but she hadn't reported in, or arrived at the rally point.

'Where is she?'

Heather came over the com.

"Rey, Nav'iel was captured, she was trying to get to the main gun and permanently disable it, but was caught by a squad, and they are holding her in the left wing of the base."

"I'm not leaving her, how can I get there?"

"Follow along the base until you reach the large command complex of the south west wing, there will be some guards between you and her."

Rey didn't need to be told twice; he got back to the Stalker ATV and drove towards the command centre.

'I'll find her and no matter what, nothing stands between me and her.'

He felt sure that being attached to an alien might not be the best or worst of partners for life, but there would be difficulties, he was sure of this, but nothing was going to stop him, from getting to Nav'iel.

XXXXX

Nathan was having the time of his life, running from the strike point he and his platoon had penetrated at and now were rushing the outposts and doing this in style, or with more noise than necessary.

The warthogs were deployed when the enemy AA guns went down, and now they had their orders to run like hell, and before the enemy started sending out anything heavier than a gunship.

But in all the chaos and confusion caused by them there was sure to be a positive side for all things.

He was grateful to hear that Rey had survived the landing and made his way to saving their asses on the field.

'I'll know I'd see him in hell.'

Nathan watched now as the enemy base burned, knowing that Rey was as hell bent on destruction than he was, if it was any better he would have had a tear in his eye.

But instead he thought about if he paid Rey a visit.

"Corporal, turn this car about and bring up the IFF on Rey, I think it's time we retrieved our hero."

XXXXX

Rey had arrived at the main command centre, ready for a fight and he did, the watch towers spotted his approach and vectored in a run with a gunship, he was now driving around the base at top speeds.

'Damn, these things never give up!'

A missile flew by as he drove himself under the watch tower and let it absorb some fire, though this wouldn't last long, and he had a quota to fill.

'What can take a gunship down and leave time for me to get to Nav'iel?'

He looked about until his eyes saw a point of interest, a set of high grade fuel cells left conveniently outside.

Gunning his bike forwards he beckoned the gunship to chase him, it wasn't very hard though seeing he left a mark on their base large enough for anyone with two or more eyes to see.

The ship came in with guns blazing across to his left and swerved about right, Rey being as he was a Spartan knew one of the more important factors in tactics, once he baited them it was a simple way of ending it.

He ran straight for the fuel tanks and fired a few HE rounds from his bike, it didn't take any time as the cells ignited and blasted a large enough shockwave for the base to shake.

The shock also removed the gunships chase as it swerved about to avoid being engulfed in flames, though they came in low, and low enough for Rey.

He swung up from the explosion and using his suit jumped aboard the gunships cockpit, he could see their definite surprise as to how Rey managed such a thing before he slammed his fist into the window with a little goodbye gift.

Jumping down he waited as the gunship span about and then exploded vibrantly into bits and pieces, he knew when he was done, and now he headed for the base.

And nothing was going to stop him.

XXXXX

"Why the hell can't we stop him?"

The turian commander was more than just unhappy, his reputation as well as rank and persons was now ruined and all he could do was watch as a single soldier ripped through all of his forces, the day was going bad to worse or much worse in his case.

The day was about to reveal where the enemy soldiers had hidden their base and a full sweep was to be completed and a full report to command, there was a good position opened for him and now he was on the wrong end of that promotion.

A sudden explosion from the floor below of the command room and he knew that it wasn't going to end well, he looked over at a security console to see the dark armoured soldier from before now making his way up.

There was little option left.

"Bring that vagrant over here now, well deal with both at once."

XXXXX

Rey breezed through the enemy defences easily and was now making his way up, the guards tried to stop him, but when they ambushed him they noticed that he wasn't there.

He was right behind them.

XXXXX

The commander was waiting as he knew the guards outside wouldn't last.

There was a very brief sound of screams and gunfire, and then nothing, there was a waiting period between the gunfire and the drop of bodies, it edged the remaining soldiers, they were thinking if they even had a chance.

This was answered when the door opened with a hiss, there a turian body slid in, his skull was cracked and his body had definitely large holes.

This was accompanied by heavy footsteps; the commander was dreading as the silhouette of the black armoured soldier appeared in the doorframe.

"Hold it, don't move any closer, or you might force me to harm your friend here."

The commander had taken a desperate measure by holding Nav'iel as a hostage.

"Now you wouldn't want to hurt your friend here w-"

The commander never finished his sentence; his head blew apart from a pistol round to the back of his skull.

The other troopers turned to see that the mystery soldier had managed to somehow get behind them, but the other was still in the door way, panicking the soldiers opened fire on both, resulting in a confused and very short fire-fight.

Rey cleared the last of the bodies away and was now helping up Nav'iel he checked over her suit to make sure there were no punctures, but she had other things in mind.

"**YOU bosh'tet, **what were you thinking!"

Nav'eil was hitting the chest plate of his armour. He was confused; this was the only person he had really known for more than a few days, but still.

"What is something wrong?"

She did explain in a very unhappy manner.

"What took you so long and why did you shoot you almost hit me."

"I came back for you as fast as I could, and I fired because he was distracted, and you were under threat, I couldn't just leave you."

At this point she was surprised, he came back and saved her, it was only because he cared but she was so concerned, she calmed her self-trying to remember why she was helping and why he was here.

He said apologetically. "Look, Nav'iel I'm sorry, I really should have come along to help, but I believed you could get this done without me."

Now she was feeling guilty because of him, she had overreacted in a not very well coping manner.

"No, Rey that was just me, I guess I should lunge at you like that."

The two were talking about their guilt not realising they had guests.

"So lieutenant, are you going to introduce your new girlfriend?"

Rey and Nav'iel turned about to see Nathan and his ODST detachment standing in the door way.

Rey turned about saluting and reporting.

"Sir, you got here a few minutes late."

Nathan and the team laughed, they knew better than anyone.

"Well lieutenant, if you don't stop hogging all the kills, it tends to end that way."

Nav'iel interrupted.

"You know I shouldn't really be interrupting this family reunion but I think we should be going."

"Misty face has got a point we need to leave and get to that rally point before we're MIA."

The team and Rey made their way down to their vehicles and made a rather fast departure, but not before Nav'iel told them some good news.

"Oh by the way, I set the charges at the AA as you left on the objective, do you want to set them off?"

Rey declined.

"No, you have the honours, and more spare hands." Rey said gesturing his hand towards to the bike.

Nav'iel pressed the button, and nothing happened.

"Hmm, it didn't work…"

There was a violent eruption from the base, the AA exploded at the core and set off everything flammable or volatile nearby.

Nathans corporal commented.

"Not such a bad day after all."

And this wraps up this chapter.

Hope you guys like it because there will be more to come sadly much later.

Age of revelation: is taking my time trying to fix.

And now I have, Fate is never set, as a newer story which is on the roll.

So my first few steps to galactic mayhem has begun and more is yet to even start, I hope to rule the globe one day, just like Bungie.


	8. Halo Effect: Not the End

Thanks to you all.

Here is the next instalment.

I do not own Bungie or Bioware or EA

If I did why would this be a Fan Fic, LOL?

I'm listening to Linkin Park, do not worry.

7.0 This is not the end.

The dawn came over the busy city, the normal hustle and bustle, and the events of last night ended with the departure of Rey and Nav'iel.

The street as usual, neon lights glowing overhead and the traffic of shuttles moving over through the city's elongated structures. No one had ever noticed the movement in the industrial section, there was a sudden increase of people, but the city's populace couldn't care less, these new people seemed secluded only to themselves, they had removed any unwanted guests and neighbouring gangs seem to vanish.

Though the area surrounding the industrial district was not far from the main centre it was disregarded as not important and was quickly ignored.

XXXXX

Rey walked along the roof of one building watching the city below, he and the survivors were planning well ahead, Nav'iel had gone to contact the migrant fleet and the marines were trying to fit some new gear on, they had also managed to salvage a ship, though it wasn't as fancy or great, it was good conditioned.

There was still the fact they needed another three vessels for the entire force, and that was why they were buying ships, another two more and they would be able to launch their operation, the migrant fleet was coming to cut a deal with them.

They needed as much assistance and allies as possible, and if they had a small fleet of ships and a good cover story they could take the fight to the citadel, but that was still in progress.

The colonel was talking with the remaining crew about the operation, Nav'iel explained that the citadel sensors were capable of detecting virtually anything, with the exception that the only way in would be by the lower wards.

The plan was still in progress but a solution was necessary, if they could hold the council hostage, they could bring the war to an end, and a quick treaty and ceasefire would save many lives, or prove disastrous.

Moving back to the stair case of the roof, Rey made his way down the stairs, inside the marines and crew were preparing for their departure, crew were loading supplies and techs were gearing the ships up.

The vessels were found to be very fragile, so they had to extend the vessels capable strength, they also had to take into account about the vessels mass effect core, something that they had just encountered, so Heather and Mathis were both needed to regulate programs in keeping them stable.

The techs were having the hardest of time, the mass accelerators of rifles were the most intriguing of advantages and needed to be considered in use, their own rifles used a mass driver type of design and had to compete with the galaxies.

The kinetic barriers were also being installed in all the armours, Rey hadn't needed to worry too much about it seeing as his resonance field barriers could with stand more punishment than the average tank.

XXXXX

Nav'iel had just finished sending the message from a private com terminal being watched by the AI Heather, she made sure no one could have possibly listening, and when the line went directly ahead the admiralty board was stunned over the agreement.

They had argued about a number of things, this was just adding to the fire, they UNSC was willing to negotiate with them about and such things as assistance, they'd be able to retake their world or be offered a new world, there was many options available, the board decided, a small escort fleet would be on approach to retrieve the survivors.

XXXXX

Duran was sitting on a chair setting his new suit on a table, a quarian environmental suit, he had no idea how anyone could live like the quarians, inside a sealed bottle. He and the others necessary for the mission were being measure up, they were needed to confront the council, and Rey was going to be for support, there was no suit large enough for him.

Setting the suit aside with its glass mask, he loaded a clip of his M6, and checking his assault rifle.

The colonel was going to provide a distraction while they struck at the heart of the citadel, hopefully to avoid any pressure of the enemy forces.

If things went bad they could always surrender.

XXXXX

"We cannot surrender, pull the fleet to L9, we'll come back around." Jacob yelled.

The fleet had engaged the turian hierarchy forces that were invading Shanxi, they found themselves outgunned 2-1, 49 ships were engaged against only 19.

Waves of missiles and MAs passed each other in space, Jacob was sure that if there ever was a battle as bad as the one he was in at the very present moment, it had to be better.

"Captain, we have thirty more signals, estimated size and shapes suggest some kind of support fleet, we can't stay here, we've lost more than half sir."

"The relay this message to all vessels, pull back towards L9 and bring the fleet to bear, we'll push back as soon as possible, but for now they're on their own." He said with disappointment, he didn't like the idea of leaving fellow troops behind.

XXXXX

David Anderson cleared the shrubbery, his breathing heavy as he rushed down the park; he could hear the fighting not so far from here, the turians were pushing hard, but not enough to break them.

It wasn't until a shell landed only a few meters away that Anderson ducked, it was followed by a footsteps, he looked at the figures feet, two large black armoured boots sat right in front of his face, looking up he could see who it was.

"Hey soldier you ain't going to be any safer sleeping on the ground boy." The dark skinned man offered his hand, Anderson took it.

"Sir, aren't you?"

"Yeah I'm Avery Johnson, Sargent Johnson, boy." Johnson said.

"Jesus, I never thought that you would."

"Come back from the grave, hell marine it takes a lot more than a laser to the face to kill me, I am one mean green motherfucking machine." He said, the bravado was practically smoking off of him.

"So how are you here?"

"That's classified, and unavailable, let's just say, hell and back." He said taking another puff out of his ridiculously large cigar.

"So where do we go sarge?" Anderson asked.

"Easy, Hawk you there?"

"I'm here." Anderson looked above to see the outline of the chopper, it set down a few feet away.

"So does that answer your question?"

"Sure does, let's get going."

XXXXX

Williams watched as another wave of marines held the line, the turians landing zone was rigged with explosives, but due to their unpredictable tactics they began to push into the far western lines.

His front here in the main capital was not as good as elsewhere, command had ordered the withdrawal of the fleet, and the turians were landing in more troops.

The situation was unlike that of the covenant war; just that their enemies were far less capable in space combat, yet made this up with many numbers.

"Dammit, call back the second armoured regiment and reinforce the fifth marines with the reserves." He ordered.

"Sir yes sir."

He had been watching the tactical display of the battle, his men were stretched thin across the field, and without support soon, he and his men would have to withdraw into the city.

XXXXX

"Kicking split face ass, marines." Johnson yelled as he gunned another three turians down with the 50.

Anderson watched the old war hero sergeant chewing apart the turians like the end of his cigar, and it was tough.

He and Johnson just landed a few minutes before to support B Company, but when they landed, they realised B company was just a tactical team.

Private Preston Marlowe

Marlowe had joined the army declaring "Runs in the family, I guess." After crashing an attack helicopter into a general's limo, Marlowe is sent to the 22nd Army Company, or "Bad Company". General Braidwood, their new commander, refers to their new placement as "Special Activities Division", but continues to ask for their "unorganized, unorthodox, and lethal" tactics.

Private Terrance "Sweets" Sweetwater

Private Terrance Sweetwater, the technician of the squad, joined the army for a scholarship. Having a keen sense for technology, he expected not to do any fighting, but after being sent to Bad Company, he hoped to get out as quickly as possible.

Private George "Hags" Haggard Junior

Haggard joined the army to blow things up. After blowing up "the biggest ammo dump this side of Shanxi", he was sent to Bad Company where he continued to blow things up. He doesn't seek to get out of the army anytime soon.

Sergeant Samuel "Sarge" Redford

Redford was the first person to volunteer to join the company, promised early discharge from the army. But he stays on now due to the turian invasion.

With Bad Company they have to deal with the more rough and tough opposition, which is where they now have to assault the turian base of operations.

"Hey Sweets can you see anything there?"

"For the last time no, there's no sign of movement just wait will you?"

Anderson felt that this was going to be a long day.

XXXXX

END FOR THOSE WHO LOVE BAD COMPNAY


	9. Halo Effect:CH8 WE NEED THE BOMB

8.0

We need the bomb

XXXXX

Shanxi

"Damn boy, duck." Johnson yelled, he fired his awesome BR55 in his kickass fashion, his cigar was blown apart by a sniper, but he was unscathed.

"You asked for the pain now split lips." He yelled, his bullets pelted the turian leaving holes the size of his fist, another turian started firing at him as he ran out of ammo.

"Hey anyone got a light?" He asked removing the cigar.

"Here." Redford offered.

The sergeant gave him a silver ornamented lighter shaped like a pair of eagles, the quickly ignition followed by the sound of burning and then ended with a relieved sigh.

"Yup, that hits the spot."

"Why not hitting the spot on that very large floating tank?" Marlow said.

"Oh, thanks for pointing out the obvious." He said hefting one of rocket launchers from Hag's stash.

"Mac, blast clear!" He yelled.

The guided missile shot forwards and struck the unsuspecting tank with dead centre precision, the vehicle ignited with a shower of debris.

"Woo, come on F******, that was great!" Hags yelled.

"Nice shot Sarge." Sweets said.

"Thank you." Both said.

They then stared at each other…

Anderson knew that this was going to be a long day.

XXXXX

Citadel

Dock No.2401

Rey moved about the security systems as he could, thing had been beefed up since the beginning of the war, the turians weren't exactly too happy with things going on in Shanxi and were fearing that they would be pushed back into council space.

That was partly true, the UNSC was about to launch a counter invasion within the week and hit the turians back if they didn't stop attacking, although this option was just as appealing as it didn't require as many lives to succeed.

"Rey, here, how's the back entrance to the presidium?" Rey asked.

"Clear, the guards have just begun their shift changes, and the colonel has taken to the level below in the wards, they'll begin the diversion for your team to infiltrate."

"Roger that, proceed at your own discretion.'

It took moments for the UNSC marines disguised as quarians to spread about in critical locations around the wards, the C-sec office was one and the many strategic strong point that were of value to holding the area in complete lockdown.

XXXXX

Nav'iel never believed the day anyone attacked the council, this had to be the greatest and boldest plan ever to be carried out by a single race.

Rey had planted the charges as were set for the invasion of the citadel, and also prepared her fellow quarians to begin the diversion in space as well as ground operations. The near 2000 plus marines were enough to even the odds against any of the councils forces.

'I just hope this works.' She thought to herself.

The timer went down and the first stage was just about to begin, there was no turning back, for her or her people, if the council didn't care for her people, what made her think that she should care for them?

ZERO

XXXXX

Across the wards a sudden wave of explosions occurred, the bombs that the marines had snuck unto the citadel had worked. The bombs had been separated into mobile packages that were attached to the quarian suits and then transported across the wards.

The concussive explosions caused major system crashes as Heather and Mathis began their purge of the extranet. The system would soon shut down and sever the network access. One that had been completed the marines would hold their positions and wait for Rey's signal.

Though fighting became apparent as the situation unfolded, as the marines took control of the wards the C-sec or Citadel security attempted to fight back. The UNSC marines knew of the plan and used concussive rounds to disable the bystanders in the fight.

XXXXX

Inside of the presidium Rey and his team took to the streets as panic filled the station; it wasn't a challenge for him to break through as security checkpoints had rushed to the wards.

He and the quarian and marine team managed to get only up to the courtyards before being halted by security.

"Hold it. Who are these-." Rey fired at point blank range.

The security officer went down before even having a chance to stop them, the others in Rey's team then attacked as well; the remaining security went down fast.

"Come on, we need to keep moving, the council's going to attempt to evacuate as soon as possible to the Destiny Ascension."

They continued to move until they reached the lifts, upon arriving they realised security lockdown was activated. Rey activated his com.

"Heather, we have a lockdown at the tower lifts, we need to get up there."

"I'm already on it. The lifts should be active… now." She replied.

The lights turned green at the panel, Rey and the squad stepped inside, hitting the switch they began to ascend the citadel tower.

XXXXX

The council had never believed in the hundreds of years of peace anyone would ever directly attack the citadel itself, they never thought anyone had the abilities to do so. The hundreds of ships that patrolled the region alongside the station itself, it was an impervious design to ensure its safety.

But these quarians and their new human allies had planned far well in advance and managed to sneak through local docks and bypass all security with strange programs, the entire system was now rendered useless and themselves vulnerable.

The last measure was to evacuate the council itself, but when attempting to evacuate through the emergency exit they were locked in. now an unknown squad of hostiles seemed to be on approach.

"How could this have happened?" The turian councillor Valern said.

"Maybe this is a result of your unprovoked conflict with the humans?" The salarian councillor Tallen replied.

"We had nothing to hide, the humans illegally activated that relay and those officers had every ground to open fire."

"Gentlemen, this is not the time for argument, we must act soon, if there is still any hope of recovering this situation would be to confront this group." Councillor Tevos interjected.

"I doubt that they'll respond as welcomely as their attack Tevos, these humans allied themselves with the quarians in vengeance for exiling them. And now they either kill us or hold us hostage."

The doors to the lifts at the end of the chambers opened, and out stepped the cadre, Rey took to the lead in a stride with his weapons holstered, while the others stood in formation behind him. They then began their walk to the council themselves.

Rey and Nav'iel found that the entire chambers was an interesting beauty, trees and water gardens inside the area of the council seemed to be one aspect that Rey appreciated as graceful, yet disconcerting.

Finally reaching the stairs they ascended to the top, and then were faced off by two dozen armed guards and as many Loki Mechs in range.

And then in the main ring of power stood the council, their eyes were solely focused upon the seven foot super human soldier and his mixed race cadre. Rey knew how the translators worked and watched as the blue skinned female councillor, known as an asari, activated the panel in front.

"We are the galactic council; I am councillor Tevos of the asari republic, these are my colleagues, councillor Valern of the turian hierarchy, and councillor Tallen of the salarian union, may I know who I am speaking to?" The asari asked respectively.

"I am Spartan unit called 'Freelancer' I am part of the UNSC, the humans that you fight, I am a super human soldier of that respective race." He explained.

"Why are you here for Freelancer?" The turian asked spitefully.

"I am here to represent our case to the galactic council to bring about the end to the conflict between us and the turian hierarchy." Rey said neutrally.

"Why did you not express your concern in another form? Surely a communications would have sufficed rather than a warzone." The salarian said.

"We were under the impression that the turian hierarchy had a shoot on sight policy with us, so we decided to use what local means reaching you. On top of which, we had a conflict on one of the planets not long ago; I severely doubt the turian hierarchy would be willing to talk after that attack."

"So it was your band on Causca?" Valern said accusingly.

"Yes."

"Was this the reason, that your conflict had severed any chance of speaking to us peacefully?" Tevos asked.

"That was the reason, we don't wish to harm, but we will not simply sit back as our worlds are attacked, and from recent news at Shanxi, the UNSC is repelling the turian forces off world. I only arrived here as a messenger, before the entire UNSC fleet arrives."

"When are they expected to arrive?" Tevos asked.

"In the next hour a fleet of four hundred is expected to appear at the relay along with the Sangheilli and the other member races of their empire that in accordance is another two hundred." Rey explained.

The council seemed to pause at the number of ships, they had never thought anyone could produce that many alone. The UNSC had to have been a major galactic power, even for its standard of technology, and as well as these Empire allies.

"How long has your people been preparing for war?" Valern asked.

"Since twenty five years ago, we have constantly been preparing for any attack from any area of space; I am one of those products of a war that occurred all those years ago." Rey explained.

"So, you are a Spartan a super human, I take that as enhanced gene therapy?" Tallen asked.

"Not exactly, I am a human that possess the gene marker necessary for augmentation, I had been selected for the process by my government and was then taken to a facility to hone my skills and traits, and my family was then compensated for my life. I never saw them again, and I became used to being a unit by myself, I was later augmented with chemicals that would have killed normal humans, but because of my precursor genes I had managed to survive the process and become a weapon. I have no regrets in life." He said.

The council seemed to fear and wonder about the human that now stood before them, this was a person far more capable that any army and one that had managed to band together the quarians into attacking them? He was one thing that they rather not deal with.

"Impressive as that sounds, do you not hold any regret, a person cannot simply live knowing that a future had been taken from them and still be as normal as you could?" Valern asked.

"I was trained from youth, I have very little recollections of my family, and I was raised alone, so there is nothing for me to look upon, my family still has their other children. And I am honoured to be what I am, so no, there is little a warrior regrets in life, except that in peace there is no need for them."

Things seemed to pass quietly and the councillors talked amongst themselves, as they began questioning the recent events they noticed one other thing.

"Freelancer we were-."

"You do not need to call me by my code, my name is Rey." He corrected.

"Right, Rey, as we were discussing the certain turn of events, we have noticed you had managed to gain the favour of the quarians, may we ask how you managed that?"

Nav'iel decided to answer for her people.

"I shall explain, I am Nav'iel Vas Nuvalie', I had contacted my people under the agreement that the UNSC would provide aid for my people, the agreement went through to the Migrant Fleet admiralty board and then to the conclave, they agreed to aid the UNSC. The UNSC had offered the Migrant Fleet access to worlds that were under their control as well as a genetic aid for our unique disposition. All we needed to do was aid them in confronting you." She explained.

"And how do you think this is going to improve your status with us? You only further betrayed the galactic community with this, and the geth, I doubt that this will ever be lived down." Valern said aggressively.

"Well because they have us to support them councillor, and I doubt that the council population would be as aggressive towards the quarians after we finalise our agreement. Besides why do you despise the quarians? From what we have learnt the quarians deserve none of the treatment that you have shown to them" Rey said defensively.

"They created the geth! The sentient machine race that now poses a greater threat to the galaxy; I don't believe that you could trust them after that?"

"Well that might be your standing point councillor, but I believe that you wouldn't like us any better… Heather?" He called.

The lights to a holographic projector in the council chambers activated, and then the bright orange colours shaped a feminine figure of a human female in uniform.

"Somebody call for a technician?" She said.

"Heather, meet the turian councillor Valern and Valern meet Heather."

"Interesting, an alien with a fear against technology, this is new. No offence." She said lazily.

"An AI! How dare you bring an AI into our midst, they are nothing but-."

"NONSENSE! I am not one of your blatant fictional creations, you twit!" Heather said glaringly.

"Did she just call me a twit?"

"Heather, stop aggravating the xenophobic alien." Rey said.

"Humph, let him fear, at least I'm good to go for a round of drinks later."

"Heather, you don't have an android shell here remember, Motoko has your unit back at base, and she's not coming till later."

"Well then, I better start introductions now rather than waste another minute with this fool. I am UNSC smart AI Heather; I refused to be given a number. And so I just remain Heather, I am the counter cybernetics warfare division and cyber technical unit. I am an AI created through the use of integrated neural pathways granted to me by the human brain and then processed as tissue for use in intelligence, I became this when I was finalised by my creator."

"So you are a sentient piece of machinery?" Tallen asked.

"No, I am a full sentient cyber form, not like that of simple machines, I can transfer myself into many forms, and this is just one of them."

"Do you not possess any hostilities to organics?" Tevos asked.

"No, I don't, as all AI are, we are capable of thinking and we can think for ourselves what we would do, I for one am created to think like most humans and yet possess the necessary logic for any number of situations. But in my creation I also possess emotions, these emotions are what my main creation was initially focused upon, others all vary."

"So if you do not harbour resentment, then what do you do?"

"Simple enough, I as in myself, I spend time with my partner, or husband."

"Husband?" The council said.

"Oh, right, that's a joke on my behalf, well sort of…"

Rey decided to clear things up. "Heather was granted the ability to choose who she would have for a partner for life, and selected me, I was with her since my youth and she's lived with me for the last seven years?"

"Eight now, we had a few years to get things done, and I never had time to see him so, yes, it's about eight to seven years."

Nav'iel felt slightly cheated at that point. "Wait, so you already had that things as a lifelong partner?"

"I have a name."

"Well I couldn't care less, how come no one said anything?"

"Maybe because you didn't ask, Rey was chosen by me, not any other, and so we were partnered, though we don't share that type of relationship, we do possess a working one. Though I did regret not getting to see him more often, he was the hot- I mean honourable one."

Rey was at this point feeling slightly crowded…

XXXXX

BOOM

Terrorists win!

(Just a joke on my behalf, I can't seem to get CS out of my head today, oh well here's the anticipated chapter from before. Sorry it took so long.)


	10. Notice of DISC

Notice of Discontinued: Period

As of today, this series will be ended, I have regretted to say this because I honestly did not wish to give up such potential for a story, but time is running out for me and I have work to get done, and I'm getting too tired trying to write for all these stories in my HSC timetable.

This is now discontinued and will be left unfinished, anyone who wishes to take on this story has now my expressed permission, I hope that you do better with it and continue my work to the best of your own ability, and please remember to ask me and I'll grant you permission.

These are my final works for this chapter and its plot, you can base it off what I have here and use it, I'll be discrete in revealing too much, and you can alter it in anyway shape and form.

Halo/ME: Freelancer

I'll be giving this in as I have lost the last chapter and I think someone else can do better, the story has by extent been finished, the universe is now your own to use.

The council finds the war at a close and the turians repay the damage, the UNSC allies with the quarians and helps them colonise a world and Rey falls in love with such and such. The series can be continued as a basis for the universe and thus you may use it, but you must ask first.


	11. Halo Effect: CH9 We're going again

9.0

Reclaimed

XXXXX

Rey hadn't felt this nervous since his first acceptance into the Spartan program or when he was caught off guard in his training with his master back on Sanghelios. The young Spartan found himself waiting for the arrival of the UNSC fleet, and in no time 350 ships appeared off of the portside of the massive space station, the station may have looked impressive, but the arrival of 350 massive ships of an assortment of shapes and daunting size was something that the council fleet didn't like nor did the council.

But it wasn't just the UNSC fleet, the Covenant fleet had also come into view of the citadel, the massive super carriers were as long as the length of the citadel wings and that was no small feat of sheer engineering and resource power. When the main fleet came into range they contacted the citadel.

"This is Admiral Ender Markov of the UNSC 82nd fleet, we have arrived to demand the end of the war on the UNSC and the human race, any vessels attempting flee from this point will be halted either by force or otherwise other methods. We shall not move, but if need be we will engage should you attempt to resist." The admiral stated.

The council paled at the sight of the UNSC, Rey seemed to smile at the thought that he no longer needed to be afraid of being isolated, the UNSC would be the icebreaker in this, either the council made the turians surrender, or things would get messy in the capital. The council members discussed what actions they should take.

"This is preposterous, to allow the humans to force us down!" Valern hissed.

"We have no choice, and this still is a democratic system Valern, we shall all decide." Tevos replied.

It took a few moments before they all nodded. Tevos addressed the UNSC fleet via the communications channel on all bandwidths. "This is councillor Tevos of the asari republic and acting representative of the council at this moment, we shall desist in the conflict, however orders will take time to be processed. Your Spartan here has already taken control of our tower and we have already come to an agreement, we shall submit for now."

The admiral came over the com channel to Rey. "Good to hear that you're alive Spartan, is this true?"

"Yes sir, the docks are secured by the major and the other survivors, they'll guide you here if you'd like to speak with the council." He said.

"Good, we shall discuss the UNSC situation with the council as soon as we can get there, hold your position Rey, we'll be arriving soon enough." The admiral stated.

XXXXX

Shanxi- Regan Capital City

Anderson felt as though he was trying to run the damned decathlon back on Earth for the best runners competition, which he did and received 5th place. He ducked under a pile of collapsed crates as he fired in quick succession at the turians hiding behind a wall. The M6 rounds left their marks as the HE rounds blew chunks off of the cover. He received a friendly response as a dozen MA rounds peppered his position.

Marlow fired to cover the younger marine as he then rushed from cover over to Sargent Avery where he ducked with a BR and then grunted as he shifted fire to the left, his rounds picked off the turian on the roof of a building dropping the body down. Anderson was surprised at how many turians he had killed in the last 30 minutes since they arrived here in the plaza, they had yet to break through the enemy battery, but still it was a feat of pure awesome.

"Stop gawking and get some kills boy." He said to Anderson who suddenly snapped from his awe.

Anderson joined the fight once more, bad company was pushing on through soon enough, they just needed to break from this fire fight and head over to the main turian cruiser and the rest is self-explanatory with the explosives expert that they had, they just needed to deal with this enemy AA battery and then they'd go and kick some ass.

Anderson peaked from cover and lay down some fire at a turian squad, but he ducked as a blue sphere came hurtling over his head, he had a nasty feeling that if that thing hit him he'd have less to worry about being slow to respond. The turian who fired off the blue sphere hid behind a wall, a wall that the explosives expert Hags could see with his M40 grenade launcher.

The turian didn't know what hit him as he was suddenly blow apart along with the support beams of the wall he was taking cover with, the balcony above collapsed and crushed the doorway which allowed the turians reinforcements. In seconds the firefight ended and Johnson said.  
"Damn, might as well retire, too bad for those poor bastards."

"You mean the turians?" Sweets asked.

"No I meant the repair guys who're going to be cleaning up that mess." He replied smoking away with his large cigar.

They cleared from the shopping plaza onto the second level and then they rushed out from the plaza to the main parking lot, the building that they were aiming for was just across, it had a single AA battery which just covered the street and that they needed to remove to advance on the turians cruiser and then it was going to be fireworks and sunshine for the next 2 weeks on Nu Caledonia.

Redford took point with Marlow and covered the entry way into the apartment complex next door, they brought out their MA5Cs and began to search for any targets; once they cleared the ground level they began a slow advance to the first. Marlow took point with a shotgun, the CQC of the situation made it perfect for him to take charge for this part of their mission.

It wasn't long until they came across a long hallway with absolutely nothing, Sweets was about to move ahead when Hags pulled him back. "Hey what's the big idea?" Sweets hissed angrily.

The explosives expert pointed out that the lighting in the room made a faint line from the side of one wall, a mirror reflected a straight beam of light from another corner of the room, and it was obviously a trap. "Looky here, a light mine, pressurised explosive air canister with an explosive trigger, someone knows their explosives." He commented.

"Okay aside from the admiration can you defuse the thing before we head across to the other side?" Marlow asked.

"Disarming this will be easy, just give me a second to figure out where this sucker put the mine." Hags said as he looked around, it didn't take long as the explosives expert found the trap, he removed the explosive and pulled the detonator out.

"Well guess that's one down, so how many more to go?" Marlow asked.

"About 12…" Hags said eyeing the corridor carefully.

"You're fucking kidding right?" Sweets said.

"Nope, that's 12…" Hags pointed at all the reflecting lights.

"I swear to new catholian god that the asshole who had the idea to trap an entire corridor has a lot of time on his sorry ass."

Somewhere else…  
"ACHOOO" Garrus sneezed.

"Geez man what did you do sleep in a freezer?" The turian marine next to him commented.

"Hey that happened once when Garell decided to play that prank back at the academy."

"So likely that we're going to get ambushed?" Another turian asked.

"Not that likely, seriously who the seven gates of Sidel's Hell would try to get through Garrus's intricate trap web?"

"We'll they're gonna be there all day…" Garrus muttered under his breath.

XXXXX

It didn't take long for the UNSC pelican to land at the main dock, Heather and Mathis went along to greet their arriving superior with Duran and Lieutenant Nathan. It was a rare occasion that the UNSC marines were not within their usual dress codes, but who could honestly blame them? The quarian outfitted marines saluted as their superior arrived; the only way to tell the difference was by the hands of all suits and the shoulder guards that they wore in order to differentiate from the quarians.

Admiral Markov didn't waste any time travelling from the docks to the presidium, the crowds down in many sections of the station looked around concernedly about the state that the Council was in, this military coup or confrontation was never expected especially on the Citadel. Once they arrived down in the council tower they met with Rey.

Rey saluted as his superior arrived, the admiral returned his gesture and asked.  
"Spartan, I see that you've well and truly outdone yourself this time, minimal loss of life and done in record time, you probably won the entire war yourself. Well we better get through with the proceedings; the council is going to have to consider how they'd end the war and how the turians are going to have to cope with helping pay off the damage should they accept."

Markov walked into the main chambers with the UNSC marines he had, the council had still be in decision to finally accept defeat. Markov addressed them. "Have you decided upon how this should end?"

The councillors took their sights upon the admiral and Tevos replied. "A compromise has been decided to which we believe will suit both sides just fine."

XXXXX

Shanxi-

Marlow had point once more, this time they had managed to finally get through the ridiculous amount of traps and successfully breached the turian position, Marlow was to head off and destroy the AA while the others in the squad had fallen back to cover his escape and devise a distraction for him. That didn't settle the fact that he was on his own for the whole thing while the others drank out at the local bar.

Passing the 3rd group of guards from his ventilation passage, he arrived at his destination, the emergency exit to the roof, he pulled the metal grate from wall near the exit and stepped out and replaced the grate carefully. He was amazed that no one could hear him swearing from downstairs.

He climbed the stairs and checked his IFF on his VISR; he found that there were 5 contacts on the roof, 3 on guard 2 manning the AA guns. He removed his knife as he selected the closest to the door he was waiting at, once he had chosen his target he pulled the door open enough to see where the guard was positioned. One was facing off towards AA and another looking over the edge, and one walking around.

Marlow waited for the guard to move past the doorway and then crept up behind him; grabbing the helmet he slid the blade under his throat and dragged the twitching body back through the doorway. No one had taken to his presence yet so he'd use the advantage, he pulled out his M6 and locked a silencer to the nozzle. Carefully stepping behind another turian he fired at the guard facing the edge of the building, he dropped off as the loud AAs kicked in.

The last guard noticing the lack of fellow comrades walked around to see where they had all gone, Marlow waited as he arrived at the door, no longer there was a need for subtlety, he smacked the door into the face of the turian as he walked past and fired into the stunned turian guard. Once dropping the alien he crossed the distance over to the AAs and threw 3 frag grenades, the gunners had no chance as they were blown into blue bits of gore and limbs.

As soon as the silence came to the AAs Marlow had 2 dozen contacts rushing to meet him from the stairs. Thankfully the others of B company had remembered that Marlow was still alive, the whole building shook as Hags set off all the captured explosive packages down 3 levels, the turians were now scattering to meet with whatever was attacking, which was Marlow and B Company.

Now all he had to do was survive until someone called in that damned pelican.

XXXXX

Citadel-

"The demands of the council are outrageous, that's being subtle as well, considering everything councillors. That's a demand to which the UNSC would happily disregard as genocide. AIs will not be deactivated just for your reassurance and the sheer scale of the UNSCs military power being reduced would absolutely cripple us in the face of any threat in the possible future." Markov stated.

The discussion had just become a free for all once the council began to state demands, the UNSC provided a statistic as to the UNSCs military and technological scale, saying that it wasn't impressive would have been an understatement, the council had never met a race that could dwarf it in technology or medical advancement.

Things had gone downhill though as the council began to push for the UNSC to disband over 60% of its total military strength and that was mostly the infantry side of things, the UNSC was also being asked to remove over 80% of naval fleets and decommission all planetary defences for council inspectors to determine what further purposes they might serve.

Saying that Markov was less than pleased was an understatement, he was furious, things had gone from simply bad to a ridiculous scale of bad, sure the UNSC had the gun in its hands, but the council made things harder to not pull the trigger when it wasn't necessary. Markov was getting sick to death by the damned scale of bureaucracy of situation, 3 voices against one.

"The council's demands are of the best interest of all races in the sanctuary of council space; these demands do not seem as crippling to us as it is to you." Tevos replied.

"That's because your space has never been absolutely crushed under a superior enemy with more technology or weaponry as yourself. The UNSC will not accept the terms of the treaty that you are trying to offer us, and I sure do not think that the covenant will either." Markov gestured to the elite standing only 5 feet from him.

"And what is your 'allies' take on this? Surely they can understand enough to be able to speak for themselves?" Valern patronized.

"I can speak fine, and I can understand you very clearly councillor." The elite responded calmly.

"Then what is your take on this?" Valern asked.

"You have nothing to gain from the UNSC and the UNSC does not wish to accept your terms, I believe a truce could be settled first though before anything revolving the complexities of the UNSC should be established. Unless you intend on a mindless slaughter for the next month, it would be prudent to recall all troops and await for the UNSC to prepare a full delegation, but in terms of this meeting now, you have very stubborn intentions councillor and they'll be your undoing in the long run." The elite replied.

"Well we'd like to call back our forces if it hadn't been for the crippling sabotage committed by the UNSCs Spartan pet, we won't be able to contact anyone for another week." Valern said.

"Well then don't complain to us and just figure out how you intend to come to a decision so we can all go home." Markov retorted.

Rey could honestly see the struggle between the UNSC and the council, he didn't get involved in the politics of such things but he was sure that UNSC HIGH COM was probably going to just wipe the slate and cut the UNSC off from the council regions just to avoid further aggravation. The covenant would probably have to call in someone better for the negotiations, probably the higher leadership of the Arbiter or hierarch.

The verbal bashing both sides traded continued through till the end, the UNSC and council agreed that as soon as someone managed to get communication restored they'd call the truce, the UNSC was already relaying orders for a stand by, but the time would take mostly a week to accomplish, once everyone had enough time, then the real proceedings could occur.

XXXXX

AN:

Yes, I think it's time to brush off the dust again, there have been failings of some of my stories so I'm just dropping the UCAF based stories which I see are going badly or need heavy revision.

1 solid month has completely mind fucked me over on exams and I have no good ideas for a while aside from requests coming through which I have yet to full acknowledge due to sheer time consumption, so I'll just lay this down as best as I can.

Halo/ME:

Era of Contravene will continue thankfully due to some desperate part of me holding on to the prospect of the future

Ascension is being cancelled due to lack of support and will be under revision next year

The WH40k based story on the Halo ME universe has yet to fully take off, so I'll get to work as soon as I finish my last exams, but not promise that it will be sufficient

Age of revelation will need to finish up in 2 chapters and that's it

Halo's Dawn for my 40k crossover before will also undergo a cancellation for a while until I can revise my ideas

Gateway to revelation is a failure off the bat, the idea was originally meant to form the 2 universes of the halo and the ME in the same one, but due to lack of thinking and half assed ideas I just screwed the whole thing up in a minefield of plot holes which will result in bad criticism from practically every author I know of.

Providence of the Young is also a failure due to its too rapid construction and badly written plot line, I have no idea how to express my views for an entire cast unless I be a multi personal psycho path with some serious disorder of mental thinking then that's also going to be cancelled as soon as I can think of something better.

Freelancer as you all know is just making the last dead run to gain support due to my lack of thinking now and I just want to finish the mini story.

The light of Halo will be on hold due to sheer scale of crap being tossed around, so just wait for it.

Tomorrow's Embrace is now under revision and will be considered, however please if someone else can take it off my hands feel free to.

3 new stories have been put on hold till next year and I don't think I can come up with anything right now so just wait for things to settle down as I have fallen into work pressure stress disorder for a while…

That's all I have left to say before I drop dead from lack of sleep.


	12. Halo Effect:CH10 Aftermath before bio

10…

XXXXX

Aftermath…

XXXXX

(Yes I have decided upon finishing this as soon as I could it's had a good run, but it was short for a reason, this was one hell of an old fic. So as a gesture to all of my readers, I've decided that you can decide if this fic would ever take to again or remain shelved.)

XXXXX

Serpent Nebula- Citadel- Council Tower

1 week later…

Rey sat on the sidelines again, this time with some company, his commander and fellow personnel had been assigned to sit the negotiations out, probably for the best, and they had a certain ambassador for the talking anyway. For Rey, his service in the UNSC had seemingly begun, with the UNSC opening up trade with the council and planned borders he'd be out and about soon enough.

Not to mention with new Spartans being created the UNSC would be expanding into the known galaxy, and the Covenant following shortly behind them. The Covenant ambassadors had arrived only a few days ago, along with the high chancellor Rtas' and the Arbiter himself representing the covenant.

What remained of the fighting was slowly dispersing; news to the colonies was somewhat slow as they had been fighting a guerrilla war. It was now a matter of time, the UNSC would be thrown into this new frontier, and hopefully prospers, and there were still a lot of things to be finished first. But who knows, but there was something special about this new age.

XXXXX

Stepping out of the council chambers Rey was passing a number of dignitaries when he heard someone call out his name. Nav'iel appeared in a new suit, one that was coloured rather vibrantly and with what looked like gloss; she had a rather brilliant brooch on her neck.  
"Rey, it's great to see you again, the council's been in discussion with the UNSC to rights within the council, we've been recognised again, but we still don't have any world to live upon. But the news does get better, the UNSC granted permission for us to colonise a world in your space." She was cheery.

"That's great news Nav'iel; I do hope to hear more about the re-colonisation of your people." He replied somewhat happy.

"Are you not happy?" She asked.

"No, it's just that my time with you actually does come to an end." He replied rather conceitedly.

"What?" She perplexed.

"The Spartans aren't meant to have ties to public persons or in this case, I can't be associated with anyone directly, not to mention the secrecy of the Spartan program is still held high. I can't be seen with you anymore, as much as I'm happy, I still have my duty to perform." He replied clasping her on the shoulder.

"So you've got to do what you've got to do?" She asked cryptically.

"Yes, if in that case yes, I've got to help with the UNSC begin border security and then expansion, for me it might take months if not years to get back from that sort of duty. But until then, I'll hear from you when I do." He smiled behind his visor.

Nav'iel knew that he was smiling, he was glad to hear of the good news for her, and he was happy for her, but he wasn't going to be able to be with her, he had his priorities, and as a Spartan, he's got places to go and things to do. They said their goodbyes and he departed with members of his crew, they'd be taking him to the UNSC frigate that had been assigned for his new duties, they called her the Normandy.

XXXXX

Elsewhere…

"So, the tides are turning?" A disembodied voice asked.

"Yes, the tides are turning, and the wind is blowing, the storm is coming." Another answered.

"The storm is bringing with it a tale of heroism, failure, success, and vigilance, it comes to claim or be conquered, and there is no turning back for the travellers. So it is the storm just over the horizon." A sage man stated as he appeared.

"Ah, colonel Ackerson, I've suspected that you've received the reports?" The first voice asked.

"Of course, the coming storm… The ONI division III have successfully recovered the artefact from the Citadel, although it could have been in much better condition if Rey hadn't gone ahead and blow up half the level he was attacking." Ackerson shrugged.

"Very good, the artefact plays a crucial role in what is to come, the covenant and the UNSC must never know, the Apex has begun." A woman in dark attire with the markings of the highest in ONI stated ominously.

XXXXX

[END]

This isn't necessarily the end, this is more like a teaser or a break, at my current time I've run out of materials to use for this fic and I've planned for something different rather than the same cliché stories that I and many other writers have made, this was supposed to be a more varying fic. Which was supposed to have other people's OCs in it to help.

I've decided that to make this fic continue, people will have to help me out, how do you want this story to continue and what would you like to add that can make this fic interesting or different? And should this fic be continued at all?


End file.
